Sheet metal structure



Sept; 19, 1944. PLANTE 2,358,415

SHEET METAL STRUCTURE Original Filed Nov. 4, 1940 fnventdr: ,ArburMPJamte .Zii's Alflfarngy Patented Sept. 19, 1944 SHEET METAL STRUUTURE Arthur N. Plante, Torrington, Conn; Anna C.

Plante executrix of said Arthur N. Plante, de-

ceased Original application November 4, 1940, Serial No. 364,211. Divided and this application July 30, 1942, Serial No. 452,898

1 Claim.

This application is a division of my copending application for a patent for an improvement in Sheet metal structures, filed November 4, 1940, bearing Serial No. 364,211, new Patent No. 2,311,867.

This invention relates to structures comprising compartments or cells formed of sheet material joined together at partition terminals. The object of the invention is provision of a simple, inexpensive and easily assembled and disassembled form of joint which is useful and efficient in uniting sheet material to form structures with an,- gularly disposed walls. The joint indicated together with others similarly formed is of especial advantage in forming sheet material into what are commonly known as knock-down structures.

While the invention may be embodied in any sheet material formed as hereinafter set forth it is particularly appropriate in the use of bendable material such as metal, in relatively thin sheets, of which respective margins or zones are folded to form channels and tongues so arranged that these zones or margins are adapted to be engaged in telescoped relation to produce an interlocked union of the several sheets, the joint so formed presenting an assembly in which an intermarginal portion of each sheet terminates in substantially perpendicular abutment with a surface of another sheet.

The drawing is a transverse sectional view ofthree wall sheets joined together in accordance with my invention.

The two-corner joint illustrated is formed of wall sheets I, 2 and 3. A marginal zone of sheet 1 is folded to form oppositely disposed channels 4 and 5 and tongues 6 and 1 arranged to form a T-slot, with the branches of the T-slot of substantially one-ply thickness and the stem of the T-slot of substantially two-ply thickness. A marginal zone of sheet 2 is folded to form a tongue 8 and channel 9 extended in parallelism with the flatwise extent of the sheet. A marginal zone of sheet 3 is folded to form a laterally extended tongue II], which together with tongue 8 of sheet 2 is adapted to be telescopically engaged with the T-slot of sheet I, with the tongues 8 and ill in respective branches of the T-slot.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim is:

A two-corner structural joint for sheet material, comprising three wall sheets, one of said sheets having a marginal zone folded to form oppositely disposed channels and tongues arranged to form a T-slot, with the branchesof the T-slot of substantially one-ply thicknessand extending in substantial parallelism with the fiatwise extent of the sheet and the stem of the T-slot of substantially two-ply thickness, a second sheet having a marginal zone thereof folded to form a channel of one-ply thickness and a tongue extended in parallelism with the fiatwise extent of the sheet, and a third sheet having a marginal zone thereof folded to form a laterally extended'tongue, said second and third sheets being engaged with the T-slot sheet with the tongue of the second sheet in one branch of the T-slot and the tongue of the third sheet in the other branch of the T-slot.

ARTHUR N. PLANTE. 

